Rule of thumb: Confidence is not to be confused with competence.
Rule of thumb: the faster they tell you how good they are, the worse they really are.
Rule of thumb: the amount of verbal justification is proportional to the forthcoming errors and time repairing the errors.
Tag: ego
- Theme: Self
The bravado subterfuge
°
1–2 minutes - Theme: Self
Individuals are Unequal
°
1–2 minutesKarl Marx, in 1875, critiques seeing workers as only workers, diminishing them through categorization and ignoring their diversity of human beings.
Contradictorily, to be “brought under an equal point of view” is a social form we apply to better measure and account for equality.
“… unequal individuals (and they would not be different individuals if they were not unequal) are measurable only by an equal standard insofar as they are brought under an equal point of view, are taken from one definite side only – for instance, in the present case, are regarded only as workers and nothing more is seen in them, everything else being ignored.”
- Theme: Self
Panic is a form of hubris
°
1–2 minutesPanic (fear and irrationality) stems from a loss of control: the world does not operate as we anticipated.
Yuval Noah Harari says upheavals are much better met with bewilderment. At least bewilderment does not emanate from self-assured pride, but is more open to recognizing the fluctuating mystery of reality and our place within it.
- Theme: Self
Honor is not character
°
1–2 minutesHonor and glory are externally gifted. Contextual bestowed tokens, that can be stripped as quickly as given.
Character and virtue are internal.
The complication is not to confuse external honor (validation) for personal worth, to not conflate approval with character.
- Theme: Self
Clarity as Camouflage
°
1–2 minutesTo clarify we attempt language.
The attempt of intimate transparency transmutes under excessive discourse, shrouding situational reality with obscuring vagaries, shades of intent. Under this web of words we form camouflage and shield. Under the method of communion we not only can hide, but can learn to attack. - Theme: Growth
Flexible Systems
°
1–2 minutesSystems are good, but if your system doesn’t adapt you are wasting time and energy.
You don’t need to treat a fluff book like a research paper, or a practical guide like a deep novel.
However, with people we should fight the willingness to categorize and treat them in efficient, prescribed ways. By listening we can almost always find value, which enriches us both.
- Theme: Systems
Helping Hand Systems
°
1–2 minutesYou can do things alone and it is difficult. You can have help and perhaps it’s easier, but sometimes you’re still alone and you need a third hand.
Clever use of scaffolding clamps and tricks, bracing, can turn your environment into a second person.
The benefits are 1) you feel clever and 2) that system won’t chastise your silly pridefulness. - Theme: Self
Solving for Ego
°
1–2 minutesYour brain’s "default mode network" can be seen as your "ego," interpreting (mediating) your inner and outer worlds.
Too much ego can lead to rumination, depression, OCD, and addiction.One way to quiet ego: get a physical hobby that recognizes mastery. Move out of your head into reality.
The newest shortcut: shrooms.